USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River, Vol. I > Part 34
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AN INDIAN MURDER CASE.
One of the memorable criminal cases of the period was the trial before Judges Test, Hood and Thompson of an Indian chief known as Now-ee-ling-qua, or Big Leg, charged, in 1830, with the murder of Wish-mah, his slave, a woman half Indian and half negro. The woman had disobeyed her master while intoxicated and he had stabbed her to death. The murder took place in a cabin near the corner of Barr and Columbia streets. During his confinement in jail the murderer was told that he might suffer the
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death penalty by hanging, or "weighing." He asked for a rope with which he hanged his dog, to witness its death struggles to determine whether or not he would prefer hanging to shooting; he pleaded to be shot. A party of friends of the condemned man sought to substitute a worthless member of their tribe in place of the chief. At the trial, John B. Bourie and Chief Richardville acted as interpreters. The Indian was convicted, but, being recommended to mercy by the jury, the governor subsequently granted him a pardon. Two of the jurymen, Jean Baptiste Godfroy and Henry Ossem, were of Indian blood.
"I remember this Indian distinctly," said the late Mrs. Lucien P. Ferry. "While he was confined in the log jail on the court house square I took his food to him. He would reach out through the bars of the window with his tin cup, and into this I poured his coffee. I was then a girl of seventeen. When the members of his tribe were taken to the west this man went with them. I remember the scene very well-how many of them were bound by the hands with ropes. The younger ones were willing to go, but the older men and women fought against leaving their old homes. This man, as he looked around at the crowd, saw me and recognized me as the girl who had been bringing his food. He came and thanked me for what he thought was my great kindness."
COMMERCE ON THE RIVERS.
With the passage of time, and before the Wabash and Erie canal came into use, the rivers became of growing importance as routes of travel and commerce. A lively trade had sprung up by the early thirties and several established boat lines were operated over the Maumee. In 1902, A. C. Comparet, of Hicksville, Ohio, said of this pioneer means of traffic :
"The goods sold by the traders were brought up the Maumee by keel boats and pirogues owned and run by different parties. On the river, Patrick Ravencraft and John Barber owned two keel boats that would carry more freight than the pirogues at a good stage of water, and, being decked over, would protect the crew from getting wet. It took seven men to run them up the current, as three on each side of the boat with long setting poles would run from bow to the stern with poles set to their shoulders, pushing it up-stream."
A suggestion of life on the St. Mary's river at this time comes from the pen of the late Edward F. Colerick, who quotes Benjamin F. Blosser, former postmaster of Decatur, Indiana. Mr. Blosser was a frequent visitor to Fort Wayne as early as 1831. In the fall of 1823, he assisted Paul Taber and family on their way to Fort Wayne over the St. Mary's. Said Mr. Blosser :
"One evening in 1838, I remember a pirogue with three persons on board, making its appearance, coming slowly up the stream, which soon hauled to for the night. We found it to contain the trusty Amos Compton in charge of a load of specie which he was taking to Dayton, Ohio, there to be deposited to the credit of the government by Colonel John Spencer, the receiver of public moneys at Fort Wayne. The boat was run across the river and secreted in a willow jungle, and in the morning it was found to be all right. There were but few thieves in the country then."
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1829 1831 INCORPORATED-"UNDERGROUND RAILROAD"
THE OLD FORT GROUNDS SOLD.
Congress, in 1830, authorized the associate judges of the circuit court to enter at the land office at $1.25 per acre for the use and benefit of the county such a portion of the military tract of forty acres about the old fort, "including Fort Wayne [the blockhouses and palisades] and the reserve for the use of the Indian agency established there," as may not fall to the state of Indiana, under the canal act of March 2, 1827. This act sounded the death-knell of the historic structure. Under the right of pre-emption acquired by act of congress of May 31, 1830, twenty acres of the west side of the fort reserve were entered by the county at $1.25 per acre. The county agent, Francis Comparet, was directed to borrow for the county the money needed for the purchase ; Henry Rudisill provided the required amount. The county addition was then platted and
HENRY RUDISILL.
Henry Rudisill was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1801. He was a resi- dent of Lancaster, Ohio, at the time he engaged with John T. Barr, one of the original proprietors of the land on which Fort Wayne stands, to remove to the village and manage the Barr interests. The family arrived on Christmas day, 1829. Mr. Rudisill became postmaster of Fort Wayne and a leading manufac- turer. He was a strong factor in the establishment of the Lutheran church and in inducing German immigration to Allen county. His death, in 1858, was the result of an injury received in a fall while superintending some work at one of his mills.
DAVID H. COLERICK.
David H. Colerick, one of the most fa- mous of the lawyers of Allen county, and the progenitor of a line of leading men of the profession, was a native of Washington, Pennsylvania, where he was born in 1805. His father, John Colerick, was a distinguished Irish pa- triot, who escaped to America to pro- mote the cause of Robert Emmett and his followers. David H. Colerick settled at Fort Wayne in 1829. He served in both houses of the legislature, but de- clined further experience as an office- holder. In politics he was a whig until 1854, when he joined the democratic party. His death occurred in 1887.
the lots offered for sale. A land company at New Haven, Connecti- cut, acting through Franklin P. Randall as agent, purchased the site occupied by the fort and the surrounding grounds. Twenty acres of the west portion of the tract was platted in 1830 and re- corded as the County Addition, and it soon became the building spot of the pioneers.
In 1852 John Fairfield demolished the final remaining block- house of the old fort.
The second addition to the original plat of Fort Wayne was laid out in 1835. Cyrus Taber purchased from the government the
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remaining portion of the military tract about the old fort site, platted it into forty building lots and placed it on file as Taber's addition.
THE BUILDING OF THE FIRST COURT HOUSE.
Until the year 1832, all sessions of the courts and of the county commissioners and boards of justices were held in private residences or in the taverns of William Suttenfield and Alexander Ewing. At the May (1831) session of the commissioners, however, the board decided to erect a court house on an unoccupied portion of the public square, and the clerk was authorized to advertise for bids. As a result, the board let to John S. Archer the contract to furnish the brick; to "James Hudson to lay up the brick and furnish the lime and stone, and to Hanna and Edsall to do the carpenter work and furnish all lumber, timber, nails, glass, etc., for $3,321.75." The citizens of Fort Wayne subscribed $499 in material and labor and $149 in cash toward the erection of the first court house. The remaining portion of the cost was paid out of the county treasury.
The building was first used just one year later than the time of the letting of the contract. It was poorly adapted to the use for which it was intended. Some of the rooms were left in an unfin- ished condition, and the citizens feared, on occasions of severe storm that the building would collapse. The courthouse faced northward and stood about midway between Calhoun and Court streets. It was forty feet square and two stories in height, surmounted by a cupola, or steeple. The lower floor was used for court purposes; it had been the intention to partition the second floor for offices, but this was never done. The upper room served as a general public meet- ing place ; here were held amateur theatricals, mock trials, religious services and sessions of private schools. This structure was used for ten years; in 1841 it was removed to make way for the third court house. In his "Charcoal Sketches," the late John W. Dawson, in description of this first court house, says: "It was so insecure when I first saw it [in 1838] that it was not occupied for court pur- poses. Still, several terms of court were afterward held there, and some political and religions meetings were also held in it. This old court house and the frame building built by Colonel [John] Spencer were sold to him by the county for $300 in the early part of 1843, and both were then removed preparatory to the building of a common one on the south part of the square." The frame building of Colonel Spencer, receiver of the land office, to which Mr. Dawson refers, was located on the northwest corner of the court house square-the present "transfer" corner. It had been erected by Colonel Spencer on a leasehold from the county, and there the re- ceiver lived for several years.
A picture of the court house square as it appeared in 1831 may be gained from the proceedings of the board of commissioners, who directed the county agent, Francis Comparet, to "cause the cutting off of the brush and stumps from the public square," by letting a contract to the lowest bidder at public sale.
In this year the board of commissioners leased to James Wilcox for four years "a remote piece of the court house square," thirty by forty feet, at the southeast corner of Calhoun and Main streets
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INCORPORATED-"UNDERGROUND RAILROAD"
1831 1829
-the transfer corner of today-for $10 per year. A like piece at the corner of Main and Court streets rented for $8 per year, and the piece at the corner of Berry and Court streets for $6. David H. Colerick, in 1834, leased one of these corners for a period of years at $10 per annum.
ACTIVITIES OF 1829.
With the 1829 session, the county board of justices went out of . existence, the law having been changed to restore power to a board of commissioners, such as had served at the time of the organization
THE RUDISILL MILL.
The photograph is an early view of the Rudisill gristmill erected in 1830 by Henry Rudisill and Henry Johns. It fronted on the present Spy Run avenue, nearly opposite the powerhouse of the Fort Wayne and Northern Indiana Trac- tion Company. In its latter years the mill was owned by Henry J. Rudisill and operated by John E. Hill. The view is from a photograph loaned by Miss Eliza C. Rudisill.
of the county. At a special election held in October, Nathan Cole- man, William Caswell and James Holman were named to compose the new board. The commissioners fixed a rate of taxation for the year 1830, as follows: Forty cents on every 100 acres of first-rate land; thirty cents on second-rate land, and twenty cents on third- rate land. During a period of high water a steamboat from Defiance succeeded in reaching Fort Wayne. The town welcomed the strange craft with rejoicings, and several excursions were run on the rivers before the boat found it necessary to return to the lower portion of the Maumee. Henry Rudisill (born at Lan-
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caster, Pennsylvania, in 1801), who was later to become one of the strong men in the varied life of the city, came to the town as the representative of John T. Barr, one of the original proprietors of the town. Mr. Rudisill was the first member of the Lutheran church to locate in Fort Wayne, and it is largely through his efforts that the denomination is so strong in this city today. One of the city's public schools is named in his honor. A portrait tablet of Mr. Rudisill, erected at this school, was dedicated in June, 1916.
ACTIVITIES OF 1830.
In the fall of 1830, Captain Robert Brackenridge, appointed by President Jackson, register of the land office at Fort Wayne, took up his residence at the village. He was born at Springfield, Penn- sylvania, in 1783, lived at Cincinnati ten years, and came with Harri- son at the time of the siege in 1812. He lived for a time at Brook- ville, Indiana, and was assigned from that place to Fort Wayne. Robert Brackenridge (a nephew of the captain, wlio became a prominent jurist), accompanied the register as his clerk. Jonathan McCarthy was appointed receiver of public moneys. The legislature of 1830 created a new judicial district, the Sixth, including the counties of Randolph, Henry, Wayne, Union, Delaware, Fayette, Rush, Elkhart and Allen, with Charles H. Test as the first president judge. At this time there were 250 voters in Allen county. With Judge William N. Hood as his associate, Judge Test opened the tenth term of the Allen county circuit court; James Perry, of Centerville, was the prosecuting attorney, and Robert Hood, clerk. At this term, David H. Colerick, a lawyer of wide reputation and the progenitor of a line of famous lawyers, was sworn in as an attorney, ex gratia. Born at Washington, Pennsyl- vania, in 1805, Mr. Colerick, after a residence at Zanesville and Lancaster, Ohio, had come to Fort Wayne in 1829. William J. Brown and Samuel C. Sample served successively as prosecuting attorneys during Judge Test's term of office, and William N. Hood and Benjamin Cushman remained associate judges. In this year a Riley township was formed from a portion of Wayne township; this was later re-named Orange township, but the organization was
afterward abandoned. William G. Ewing was elected judge of the probate court ; he served until 1833. County officers elected were William N. Hood, auditor-recorder; L. G. Thompson,
treasurer, and Abner Gerard, sheriff. Dr. John Evans and family arrived from Troy, Ohio, in 1830. Dr. Evans engaged in business with John E. Hill. A son, S. Carey Evans, succeeded to the business of his father, and he, with his brothers, W. Rush Evans and Rinaldo Evans, were actively associated in commercial enter- prises when S. Carey Evans became the head of the Merchants' National bank. Later S. Carey Evans was associated with Henry Rudisill as a railroad contractor. An important manufac- turing enterprise which had its beginning in 1830 was the overshot gristmill of Henry Rudisill and Henry Johns, on the St. Joseph river. Power was furnished by the construction of a dam across the river below the site of the present State street bridge, which was then referred to as "one mile north of the town," but which is now well within the corporate limits of the city. For many years this estab-
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lishment, known in later times as the Rudisill mill, served a large territory. The ruins stood until about the year 1910. Be- ginning with November, 1830, and continuing until March, 1831, the middle west suffered from the ravages of one of the coldest winters in its history. A heavy snowfall early in the season remained until the opening of spring and travel was almost entirely abandoned for a period of five months. Wolves, driven to desperation through hunger, infested the town; many Indians lost their lives because of the insufficient protection against the ferocious beasts. The election to select associate judges resulted in the choice of William N. Hood and Dr. L. G. Thompson.1 Stephen K. Sithers
JUDGE JOSEPH BRACKENRIDGE.
Judge Brackenridge (born at Brook- ville, Indiana, in 1823) came to Fort Wayne in 1830, with his parents. After his early schooling he studied law with his uncle, Robert Brackenridge, and, aft- er his admission to the bar in 1846, he served as prosecuting attorney for sev- eral terms. In 1856 Governor Willard appointed him judge of the court of com- mon pleas, a position he held for several years. During the latter portion of his life he won a high reputation as a rail- road attorney.
ALLEN COUNTY'S FIRST COURT- HOUSE.
This small building-forty feet square -served as the first courthouse of Allen county for but a brief period, owing to its faulty construction, which made nec- essary the erection of a temporary wood- en building at the southeast corner of the public square. Reckoning this tem- porary building as one of the number, the present building is the fifth to be built on the courthouse square. The building shown in the view was erected in 1831, at a cost of $3,321.75. It was torn down in 1841.
(born in New Jersey in 1816), the builder of more than fifty grist mills in Allen and adjoining counties, settled in Fort Wayne in 1830.
ACTIVITIES OF 1831.
Peter Frysinger was paid $6.75 for placing a pump in the town well on Berry street, the exact location of which is not a matter of record. The total amount of taxes received in 1831 was $91.121/2. On account of the prevalence of smallpox, the town trustees passed an ordinance requiring all persons afflicted with the disease to remain at least one-fourth of a mile outside the town limits. The total vote of Allen county in 1831 was 208; the county election resulted as follows : Auditor-recorder- clerk, Allen Hamilton; treasurer, L. G. Thompson; sheriff, David
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THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
Pickering; commissioners, Francis Alexander, William Caswell, James Holman; state representative, George Crawford. The Third congressional district was represented in congress by Jonathan Mc- Carthy, of Fort Wayne. Mr. McCarthy was a native of Tennessee, commonly called "General," because of his connection, when a young soldier, with an Indian fight. He served in congress three terms. Mrs. Robert Brackenridge, Jr., Mrs. William S. Edsall and the first Mrs. Edward F. Colerick were daughters of Mr. McCarthy. President Andrew Jackson, on assuming the duties of his office, promptly caused the dismissal of all holders of public office who were not identified with the interests of the democratic party. Henry Rudisill was appointed postmaster of Fort Wayne, to succeed Allen Hamilton. Mr. Rudisill served from March 2, 1831, to May 31, 1841, a period of service of greater length than that of any other postmaster of Fort Wayne. Although James Aveline, son of Francis Aveline, and Catherine Comparet. daughter of Michael Comparet, had been united in marriage through a civil ceremony performed by William G. Ewing, probate judge, Father Badin gave them the nuptial benediction. The marriage record states that the civil ceremony was made necessary because the nearest priest re- sided 130 miles distant from Fort Wayne at the time. Catherine Comparet signed the record with her "mark," as did three of the witnesses, Francis Reno (Renaud), John B. Bequette and Pierre Courveille ; Jean Godfrey was a fourth witness to the ceremony.
NOTE ON CHAPTER XXIV.
(1) Judge L. G. Thompson, who was a man of dignified appearance and not easily approached, was upon one occa- sion asked by a visitor to the court
room what his initials stood for. "Why," 'Lord God,' of course; what do you suppose ?"
L
CHAPTER XXV-1832-1834.
Canal Construction Begins-The First Newspaper-The First Fire Company.
Congress and the canal-The Indiana legislature appoints a board of canal commissioners-Jesse L. Williams, chief engineer-Fort Wayne thrills with new life-Beginning of construction work is celebrated by the people February 22, 1832-The awarding of the construction contracts- Opening of the canal land office-Construction of the "Feeder"-The first newspaper, the Sentinel, established by Tigar and Noel-Hugh McCulloch-His first impressions of Fort Wayne-The first fire company -"The Phenomenon"-Pioneer mail service.
T HE OPENING month of the year 1832 witnessed the official action which gave to the enthusiastic pioneers of the west, and notably the people of Fort Wayne, an occasion to rejoice in the beginning of construction operations on the Wabash and Erie canal. The legislature, in 1831, had found it necessary to authorize a loan of $200,000, with the provision that the loan should at no time exceed the amount due on the land sales. Certificates were issued on thirty years' credit and the lands were pledged for their ultimate payment. Judge Hanna led the campaign for state aid. In the meantime, Joseph Ridgeway was engaged to direct a corps of engineers to complete the survey of the summit level of the canal through the Fort Wayne section.
At this time the population of Fort Wayne was estimated at three hundred.
Judge Hanna, during his period of activity in the state senate in behalf of the canal, represented the inhabitants of an area equal to one-third of the state of Indiana. As a canal commissioner, fund commissioner and chairman of the canal committee, he was enabled to exert a great influence in behalf of the enterprise.
In 1828, congress authorized Indiana to sell her lands in the northeastern portion of the state. Ohio had been granted the same privilege. The project then became a united work of two states. Soon the canal lands in Indiana to the value of $28,000 were sold and the money began to pour into the state treasury. Rapidly the details of the undertaking shaped themselves for the actual work of construction. This welcome consummation came in 1832.
On the 31st day of January, the Indiana legislature organized a board of canal fund commissioners, to have charge of the receipts of the sale of lands, from donations, grants, loans, tolls and water- power rents. (See Session Laws of Indiana, 1831-1832; chapters 1 and 108.) The fund had now reached the amount of $58,651. The commissioners designated the canal route to extend "from the foot of the Maumee rapids to the mouth of the Tippecanoe river" (Lo- gansport, Indiana). Jesse L. Williams, one of the foremost engi- neers of his time, was chosen for the responsible position of chief engineer.
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For forty years Mr. Williams was prominent in the history of public works in Indiana and Ohio. At this time he was twenty-five years of age. His parents were Jesse and Sarah T. Williams, mem- bers of the Society of Friends. Born in Stokes county, North Caro- lina, in 1807, Jesse L. Williams, after a course in Lancaster seminary, at Cincinnati, chose civil engineering as his life work. In 1828 he had been engaged to make the final survey of the Ohio canal from Licking Summit to Chillicothe, and to construct a division of the work. His appointment as chief engineer of the Wabash and Erie canal brought to Fort Wayne a man of wide influence in shaping the commercial and political history of the region.
So successful was the work undertaken by Mr. Williams, that the Indiana legislature, as an expression of its confidence, gave into
EDWARD STAPLEFORD.
Edward Stapleford, who came to the town in 1833, was engaged as an auc- tioneer until his death in 1861, at which time his brother, William R. Staple- ford, became identified with the business. Upon the death of William R. Staple- ford, in 1864, Henry T. Stapleford, son of Edward Stapleford, carried forward the business which had borne the name of his father and his uncle. Edward Stapleford was a native of Newcastle county, Delaware, born in 1809. In 1833 he opened his auction rooms on the site of Colerick's hall on Columbia street.
JACOB FRY.
Mr. Fry (born in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, in 1810) came to Fort Wayne in 1834 and engaged in the tanning business in partnership with Henry, David and Robert Work. After several changes in partnerships, during a part of which time James Page was associated with Mr. Fry, the latter be- came associated in 1851, with Samuel Hanna and T. P. Anderson. David Ches- man later associated himself with Mr. Fry, and with the dissolution of the partnership in 1859 the business passed L into the hands of Mr. Fry's sons.
his hands the survey of all of the canals in Indiana which were then projected. Later, in 1836, under an act for internal improvements, he was apointed engineer-in-chief of all canal routes, and to these duties were added those of chief engineer of all projected railroads and turnpikes ; this gave him the supervision of 1,300 miles of public roads.
THE FIRST CANAL CELEBRATION.
With all the red fire and oratory which the village could muster, the people of Fort Wayne gave recognition to the importance of the consummation of the preliminary plans for the canal. Heretofore, it had been a vague, uncertain dream. But now was hope and faith blossomed into reality. At a mass meeting held in the Masonic
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hall, over which Henry Rudisill presided, and with David H. Cole- rick serving as secretary, the birthday of George Washington- February 22-was selected as the most fitting date for the beginning of work on the waterway. It was Washington who, half a century before, had declared that here would rise "an important post for the Union." To him, also, was credited the suggestion of a canal to connect the Maumee and the Wabash.
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